UFOs HAUNT NIGHT SKIES ALL OVER AUSTRALIA

For the past two weeks, Australia has been
repeatedly visited by UFOs. Over 50 encounters
have been reported since February 1, including
two landings in the suburbs of Melbourne.

The flap began Saturday, February 1, 1997
with an incident in Tasmania, the island off
Australia's southern coast. A Glengarry family
reported finding traces of a weird "bright yellow
jelly slime" in their yard.

At 9:45 p.m., in Broken Hill, New South Wales
(N.S.W.), a city 750 kilometers (450 miles) west
of Sydney, people reported "sighting two bright lights
traveling from the northwest to the southeast." At
9:51 p.m., another man saw a glowing object fly
from the southeast to the northwest, then reverse
direction and "shoot off to the southeast."

On Sunday, February 2, 1997, at 9:50 p.m.,
witnesses in Woori Yallock, Victoria (Vic.) reported
"a bright white light" moving rapidly "from west to east
in the northern sky, moving very fast, taking about 40
seconds" to reach the eastern horizon.

On Monday, February 3, 1997, at 9:30 p.m.,
residents of Albury, N.S.W., 200 kilometers (120 miles)
west of Canberra, spotted "a white light traveling from
north to south in a zig zag fashion."

Also that night, on Australia's east coast, "a large
orange object" appeared over Port Macquarie, N.S.W.
at 10 p.m. The UFO, which at first people took for a
helicopter, "held position in the sky for about ten
minutes. Before the object shot off and disappeared,
several smaller yellow lights" emerged from the underside
of the object. Port Macquarie is 250 kilometers (150
miles) north of Sydney.

Then, after midnight, at 2:46 a.m. on Tuesday,
February 4, 1997, people in Yass, N.S.W. saw "a bright
orange illumination traveling across the sky." They
estimated it to be "about 1/2 to 1/4 the size of the
moon." The UFO flew away to the northwest.

In Gosford, N.S.W., 60 kilometers (36 miles) north
of Sydney, witnesses sighted "a large blue-white light"
near the Moonie Bridge. The UFO was "close to the
ground" and an estimated 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90
meters) in diameter.

A half-hour past midnight on Wednesday, February 5,
1997, people reported "flashing lights" located in and
around the stars in Orion's belt.

At 9 p.m. on February 5, Royal Australian Air Force
(RAAF) personnel at Bogan Gate, near Parkes, N.S.W.,
275 kilometers (165 miles) west of Sydney, spotted a
"white golden illumination" crossing the sky and heading
west. Nearly a half-hour later, at 9:25 p.m., civilian
eyewitnesses at Ngunnaiual reported "orange and flashing
illuminations" in "an arch over Orion's belt."

Several hours later, at 5:35 a.m. on Thursday,
February 6, 1997, people in Cooma, N.S.W., a city west
of the Gourock mountain range, 150 kilometers (90 miles)
south of Canberra, spotted a UFO arrayed with lights
heading east.

By the time the sun had set February 6, the theatre
of UFO action had shifted to the sparsely-populated state
of Western Australia (W.A.). At 7:30 p.m., people in
Perth, the state capital, saw a hovering "blue-green tube-
shaped object" in the day's fading daylight "before any
star could be seen."

(Editor's Note: Right now it's summer in the southern
hemisphere, so the days are much longer in Australia
and Chile.)

The following night, Friday, February 7, 1997, the
UFO action moved to the southern state of Victoria.
At 9:20 p.m., a "spinning yellow fireball" zipped across
the sky, heading west, over Bairnsdale, Vic., just above
the southern coast's Ninety Mile Beach and about 200
kilometers (120 miles) east of Melbourne.

At 11 p.m., people in Barwon Head, Vic. sighted a
UFO they described as "a moving and flashing yellow-
red fireball illumination with a (dark) triangular shape on
top." The UFO traveled in a north-northwest direction
at about 15 degrees above the horizon.

The following night, Saturday, February 8, 1997,
at 8:45 p.m., people in the Sydney suburbs of Oatley,
Kogarah and Hurstville along the St. George's River
saw "a green-to-yellow fireball with no tail traveling
south in the eastern sky (about) 30 degrees above the
horizon. There was no sound. The object suddenly
stopped and hovered." Witnesses estimated the UFO
to be the size of "an AAA battery held at arm's length."

Four hours later, at 12:40 a.m. on Sunday,
February 9, 1997, further up the east coast in Brisbane,
witnesses reported "an orange illumination traveling at
the speed of a fighter plane" in the eastern sky at 30
degrees above the horizon." The UFO was headed south
and soon disappeared among the stars of the Southern
Cross.

On Sunday night, at 9:25 p.m., "a yellow-red fireball"
was seen in St. Kilda, a bayfront suburb on the south side
of Melbourne. The UFO was headed north and "flying
beneath the cloud cover" at an estimated speed of 800
kilometers per hour (480 mph).

At 11:30 p.m., Queensland had its second sighting
of the flap when a UFO flew over Sunnybank, a suburb
14 kilometers (9 miles) south of Brisbane. Witnesses
described it as "a yellow-orange fireball" 10 to 15 miles
away, moving in a 45-degree downward arc (top left to
bottom right).

Five hours later, on Monday, February 10, 1997,
at 4 a.m., a UFO returned to Brisbane. It was described
as "a blue and red oval-shaped illumination in the
western sky (about) 30 degrees above the horizon.
It appeared to be three times the size of the largest
stars in the sky."

The flap in Brisbane continued during the early
morning hours of Tuesday, February 11, 1997. At
12:02 a.m., police in Brisbane received Phone
reports of a huge UFO described as "a large red-pink
illumination" near Mount Gravatt. The UFO hovered
about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the witnesses'
heads for five minutes.

At 2 a.m., "a series of lights in a triangular
formation" were seen by Brisbane residents heading
south toward the air base RAAF Amberley. The
lights appeared to fly in either a V-formation or a
/\-formation.

On February 11, at 11:30 p.m., the city of Adelaide
in South Australia (S.A.) reported its first sighting of
the flap. The UFO was "a ball of fire that had red and
blue associated with it."

An hour and a half later, on Wednesday, February
12, 1997, at 1 a.m., people in Taree, N.S.W., a river
port near the coast about 210 kilometers (125 miles)
north of Sydney, reported seeing "a slow-moving
orange-red fireball heading southwest." The UFO made
no discernible sound. At 2:30 a.m., people again
noticed "a fireball traveling in the sky." As the UFO
passed over, TV sets suddenly switched on without
being touched by owners. After the UFO left, the TV
sets all shut off at once.

After a 24-hour breather, the flap picked up again
on Friday, February 14, 1997, this time in Victoria.
At 11:15 p.m., residents of Craigieburn, a southern
suburb of Melbourne, saw "a bright disc-shaped light"
hovering above a paddock. Witnesses also saw what
looked like automobile headlights in the paddock while
the UFO hovered. Four or five seconds after the UFO
flew away, the "headlights" winked out.

A few hours later, on Saturday, February 15, 1997,
at 4:40 a.m., residents of Parkinsville, another suburb
of Melbourne, saw a star-sized "red-blue illumination in
the southwest sky."

Later the same day, in Duncraig, W.A., near Perth,
people outdoors at 12 noon reported a weird "solar
effect." Sunlight suddenly dimmed in an "eclipse-like
effect" although the sky was perfectly clear. The effect
lasted for approximately five seconds. No aircraft were
seen or heard overhead. The phenomenon remains
unexplained.

Also on February 15, at 8:25 p.m., people in the
Lewis mountain range of South Australia spotted "a
cigar-shaped object traveling high in the sky from west
to east. It appeared to be four times the size of a jumbo
jet." Not a sound was heard from the object. One man
took a color photograph of the UFO with his camera.

Further east, in Eltham, Vic., a suburb south of
Melbourne, residents reported three separate sightings
of "light illumination" UFOs. The first was at 9:30 p.m.,
with the light headed southeast. The second was at
9:40 p.m. and headed east. The third and final UFO was
at 9:45 p.m. and flew off to the southeast.

At 11:25 p.m. the night of February 15, people in
Quakers Hills, N.S.W., near Sydney, reported seeing
"an oval orange-red illumination heading northwest
towards Richmond." The UFO stopped and hovered on
several occasions during its ten-minute flyover and
"appeared the size of a grape held at arm's length."

After midnight on Sunday, February 16, 1997, at
12:05 a.m. observers in Brisbane spotted "an orange-
white illumination appearing in and out of clouds" just
west of the seaside city.

At 3:20 a.m., February 16, people in Adelaide saw
"a bright white illumination traversing the sky, then (it)
suddenly stopped. When it began moving again, it gave
off a series of flashes." To some, the UFO "appeared
as a cross shape with one light at each end."

On Monday, February 17, 1997, people in Duncraig,
W.A. reported a second weird "solar effect" identical to
the one on February 15. A similar incident also took
place in Duncraig on October 18, 1996.

At 11:20 p.m. Monday night, February 17, "an
extremely bright orange fireball" flew "from northeast
to southeast right over" the Australian Space Agency
base outside of Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.
The UFO's altitude was 20,000 to 30,000 feet and it
was "three to four times larger than the stars." It was
last seen heading for the Oorarginna mountain range.

At 11:30 p.m., February 17, "a very large and bright
orange illumination" appeared over Mildura, a city on
the Murray River, about 450 kilometers (270 miles)
northwest of Melbourne and 300 kilometers (180 miles)
east-northeast of Adelaide. Witnesses reported a
"large shape" poised above the orange glow. The UFO
flew away to the northwest, stopping a few times before
reaching the horizon.

Tuesday, February 18, saw more sightings all around
the island continent. At 1 a.m., in Western Australia, at
Bull Creek, near Perth, witnesses saw "three or four
lights cross the sky," making a strange rumbling noise.

At 5:30 a.m., February 18, in Prospect, S.A. a "large
white illumination traveling at (high) speed to the north"
was seen. Its speed was estimated at 300 kilometers
per hour (180 mph).

Tuesday night, February 18, at 10:30 p.m., people
in Warrandyte, Vic., near Melbourne, people saw "three
large bright orange fireballs" flying "in a triangular
formation for 5 to 10 mintues. The glows were described
as being as "large as a grapefruit held in your hand at
arm's length."

Wednesday, February 19, 1997, saw the flap shift
back to Sydney for one day. At 5:30 a.m., "three or
four intensely bright orange ball illuminations" were
seen rotating around each other as they crossed the
sky over North Head. The UFOs were moving
extremely fast. At 6:45 a.m., three large orange
UFOs "with some burning coming from them" were
seen over the suburb of Paddington.

That morning, radio station 3MMM stunned its
listeners by reporting a scorched crop circle in a
paddock on the outskirts of Werribee, a suburb
southwest of Melbourne. The circle was seen from
the air by a private pilot at 6:30 a.m., who radioed
the tower.

At 3:45 p.m., a man in Nicholson, East
Gippsland, Vic. reported a "scorched earth circle"
similar to the one in Werribee. There are still no
reports on this site as of February 23, 1997.

At 9:20 p.m., February 19, people in Geelong,
Vic., a city on Port Phillip Bay 45 kilometers
(27 miles) southwest of Melbourne, reported seeing
a large "banana-shaped or crescent orange
illuminated object" traveling in a northwesterly
direction, headed for Ballarat.

At 9:45 p.m., February 19, "five bright yellow-
white lights" crossed the sky over Adelaide. Three
lights flew in a triangular formation, while the other
two smaller lights flew parallel to the triangle. In the
night's second event, one light flew away to the north,
the other to the south. Then the lights turned, crossed
each other's path and disappeared.

At 9:10 p.m., "a very large glowing illumination"
was seen in the sky over Mount Barker, 30 kilometers
(18 miles) south of Adelaide.

At 9:30 p.m., two UFOs visited Annandale, a
suburb of Sydney, heading west. They were described
as flattened discs, something like a drummer's cymbals.

At 11:20 p.m. a group of "three white lights" were
seen speeding over Frankston, Vic., a port on the eastern
shore of Port Phillip Bay, 35 kilometers (21 miles)
southeast of Melbourne. They flew at an altitude of 300
to 400 meters (1,000 to 1,320 feet). Ten minutes later,
at 11:30 p.m., "a large yellow white light" flew over
Frankston, heading due west. (Many, many thanks to
Ross Dowe of Australia's National UFO Hotline for this
story.)

ALIENS SIGHTED IN CHILE

UFOs were busy elsewhere in the southern
hemisphere last week, as well. Three encounters
were reported around Santiago de Chile.

On Sunday, February 16, 1997, at 12:30 p.m.,
motorists in Chivilingo, a town north of Santiago de
Chile, pulled over to the side of the road to watch
an unusual spectacle in the sky. What people
described as "an elgongated cloud" suddenly split
into two cigar-shaped objects. The two then came
together to form a giant "cigarro." Then this object
split into four cigar-shaped UFOs, which tilted on
their own axes, forming a perfect triangle in the
sky.

Minutes later, the four objects coalesced into
one "cigarro," and then split into two. The two then
split into four, and all four flew away at high speed.
A truck driver at the scene took photographs, and
these are now being evaluated by Agrupacion de
Investigaciones Ovniologicas (AION), a well-known
Chilean ufological study group.

At 4:30 a.m. on February 16, two youths, aged
16 and 14, returning home to Lago de Rapel, a town
in the Andes south of Santiago de Chile. Suddenly,
"they found they were being followed by an OVNI
(Spanish acronym for UFO) and they hurried to get
home fast. Once they got home, they saw that the
OVNI was still out there. So they went in the house
and woke their father, who thought they were joking."

After dragging Papa out of bed, they peered out
the front window. "To their surprise, the OVNI was on
the ground, and a small being was standing outside of
it. The being was 1.5 meters (4 feet, 8 inches) tall
(with) a big and bald head, no description of the eyes,
and wearing a bluish suit. All three got scared and
went and hid until it went away."

On Thursday, February 13, at 11:30 p.m., Marta
Aguilar Montoya and her two small children were asleep
in their bedroom on Gran Avenida in the Llano section
of Santiago. All at once, she heard a crackling noise
"as if the TV was on but without any signal." Turning
to look at the room's TV set, she spied "a small person,
1.5 or 1.6 meters (4 feet, 8 inches to 5 feet) tall, wearing
a tight suit and a helmet. The helmet had a visor, so she
could not see its eyes." The occupant also "wore a
backpack connected to the helmet by two hoses, one
over each shoulder."

With her husband away at work, Marta "was scared
to death. She pulled both children, sleeping in the same
room, toward her and stayed there just watching." The
occupant "never took its eyes off her" but made no move
toward the family. After several minutes, the occupant
turned to the bedroom wall. Again Marta heard the same
strange crackling SSSSHHHH noise. The occupant then
"disappeared through the wall, leaving only his silhouette
on the wall, which disappeared after two minutes."

Both the Lago de Rapel and Llano cases are now
being investigated by AION. (Muchas gracias a Luis
Sanchez Perry para ese informacion.)

CHUPACABRAS IN BRAZIL

On Saturday, February 8, 1997, Brazil's Policia Militar
was called to a small farm on the outskirts of Brotas, a
town of 20,000 in Sao Paulo state. This rural area,
devoted to cattle and sugar cane, in near Bebedouro,
about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of the city
of Sao Paulo.

According to ufologist Joao Pereira Torres, the
officers "found a small dead sheep at the peak of a hill.
Apparently it had some holes in the skull, and the body
was completely dry, almost mummified." The farmer told
the Policia Militar that he had "heard strange noises in
the field close to the house."

During a search of the area, one officer reported
seeing "a tall dark shape" in the sugar cane. He called
for assistance. Searching the area, the officers
reportedly found "a strange greenish liquid" on the ground
among the stalks.

The following morning, Sunday, February 9, 1997,
Angelinha Fagundes Montt, a young woman from Brotas,
left church with her family and saw "an unusual flight of
helicopters" circling the town. Some she recognized as
Brazilian; the others "were black and I didn't recognize
them. It's highly unusual to see so many helicopters
over this part of the (Sao Paulo) state."

Pereira added that "a veil of secrecy" has descended
over Brotas. (Muito obrigado ao Sergio Graciotti for this
story.)

UMMITES RETURN TO MEXICO

Colonel Steve Wilson (USAF Ret.) of Skywatch was
in Mexico recently to investigate rumors of UFO flights.
While in Concepcion del Oro, a town in Zacatecas
state 64 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Saltillo,
he was treated to a sighting of his own.

Col. Wilson interviewed a farm worker named
Gonzalez Cabrillo, who told him that UFOs had been
seen repeatedly around Pico del Toro (2,493 meters
or 8,229 feet) west of town. Gonzalez also claimed
to have spoken to the occupants.

The aliens reportedly told Gonzalez "that they came
from a planet called Ummo, which was much like this
one. That they had come on a mission."

"The people were not scared of them," Col. Wilson
reported, "and about all I could get out of them was
that they (the occupants) were dark-complected and
looked like themselves."

Midway through this interview, "while we talked, a
formation of about 10 cross-shaped UFOs darted by
overhead at 20,000 feet," he added, "It seems to be
happening every day down there." (Many thanks to
Skywatch International for this story.)

(Editor's Note: Back in November 1996, a latrine
rumor made the rounds at Vance Air Force Base in
Oklahoma. According to the rumor, four USAF
instructors on a routine training flight over the Sierra
Madre Oriental mountains, southeast of Saltillo and
Concepcion del Oro, ran into a glowing disc-shaped
UFO and chased it for several minutes before it
shot off into space. Looks like Tacitus was right
when he said, "Rumor is not always wrong.")

NEW UFO IN COLORADO

On Tuesday, February 18, 1997, at 5:58 p.m., a
"large golden-yellow cigar-shaped object" was seen
two miles (3 kilometers) east of Canon (pronounced
"Canyon") City, Colorado. The UFO hovered about
500 feet above one of the peaks of the Sangre de
Cristo mountain range.

Jim Roberts and his son, Jeff, of Howard, Colo.
were returning from a trip to Pueblo when they spied
the UFO. "The object was visible for two to three
minutes with solar illumination in the setting sun."
Roberts took a photograph of the UFO through his
windshield. Both described the UFO as "at a 15 to
20 degree tilt, about two inches long, wide as a
pencil and did not move at all in relation to the
peak," calling it "a totally beautiful and spectacular
sight." (Many thanks to Tim Edwards for this story)

UFOs LINKED TO RECENT CATTLE MUTILATIONS

On January 12, 1997, at 2:30 a.m., Pedro Viera,
a retired police officer, was driving home on Route 40
between Caguas and Humacho in Puerto Rico. All
at once, he saw a disc-shaped UFO hovering over a
field, levitating a bull with what he described as
"a tractor beam." Bellowing in terror, the bull passed
through an aperture on the bottom of the saucer and
was lost to sight.

Viera immediately stepped on the gas pedal,
setting off in pursuit. Speeding down Route 40, he
managed to keep the UFO in sight. All at once, he
was cut off by a late-model 4X4 pickup truck and
forced to the side of the road.

According to Viera, two men in black BDU
uniforms emerged from the truck, walked over to
his car and "told me to let them do what they were
doing." At first he didn't understand what the man
meant; then he realized he was talking about the
saucer. Having lost sight of the UFO anway, Viera
continued his journey home.

Five hours later, shortly after 7 a.m., several
Puerto Ricans found a mutilated cow further along
on Route 40. The animal, they said, "looked as if
it had been dropped from a considerable height."
(Many thanks to Scott Corrales for this story.)

From the UFO Files...ARIZONA'S MYSTERY METEOR

One hundred years ago, on February 24, 1897, a
truly remarkable event took place in southeastern
Arizona. Here's an actual report from the period:

"The following account of a meteor in Arizona is
communicated through W.T. Blythe, Observer and
Section Director for the Weather Bureau at Phoenix,
Ariz.:"

"Tombstone, Ariz., February 27, 1897--On
Wednesday afternoon, February 24, at 3:45 (p.m.)
local time, or 2:45 Pacific time, sitting in the house
I heard a noise resembling thunder, but yet not like
it, lasting 15 or 20 seconds. I felt no vibration or
movement of any kind. On inquiry in this town I
find that a meteor fell near by; many say that they
saw it, and many concur in saying that windows and
doors rattled, etc. I am told that a piece of the
meteor has fallen at St. David, about 12 miles away,
and I have written to see if I can secure the stones
for the public--Henry M. Gee, Voluntary Observer."

"From a newspaper slip inclosed by Mr. Gee,
we learn that the meteoric stone which fell near the
ranch of J.N. Curtis, a short distance below (south)
St. David, was secured by the latter. It weighed 27
pounds and had buried itself in the ground after
plowing up the earth for a considerable distance."

"At Tombstone the broad white lines (now known
as condensation trails or contrails--J.T.) which marked
the flight of the meteor from southwest to northeast,
were distinctly seen after it passed. At Benson this
trail remained visible for fully five minutes. At
Tombstone the interval between its visible passage
and the subsequent explosive sound (sonic boom)
was about 50 seconds. The noise as of a great
explosion was heard, but especially at Dragoon and
Benson."

"A special report on this meteor received from
Prof. S.M. Woodward, of Tucson, says:"

"The meteor was seen be enough people to have
determined everything about its path if those who saw
it had taken pains to accurately observe the directions
and the times. The way people were deceived by it
was amusing. One thought that it fell a few hundred
yards away from our buildings on the Mesa (River),
but it must have been distant at least 50 miles; he
says it looked like an incandescent lamp bulb floating
slowly down. A woman ducked her head and thought
it went over her no higher than the tops of the
telegraph poles. I have not been able to substantiate
the report in regard to a piece falling from it at St.
David. The following is a summary of such facts as
I have been able to gather."

"About 2:50 p.m. Pacific standard time on
February 24 (1897) a large meteor fell in Arizona.
It was seen by a number of people in Tucson and
vicinity as a brilliant light in the east although the
sun was shining brightly at the time. The path was
nearly perpendicular to the horizon and was marked
by a distinct ribbon-like band of white vapor which
persisted for several minutes. The meteor was seen
by a man about 25 miles west of Tucson, by a man
in Sonora, Mexico and by people in Benson,
Tombstone and Solomonville (now Solomon--J.T.)."

From Sonora it seemed to fall in the direction
of Tombstone or Pearce and from Benson in a
direction somewhat north of east. At Benson the
meteor was seen to explode near the horizon, and
the loud noise of the explosion was heard after an
interval, estimated at from one to three to four
minutes."

"At Dragoon the noise was heard and described
as terrific. From Wilcox and vicinity there are only
rumors of the meteor having been observed. At all
places as nearly as can be learned the path
seemed to be nearly perpendicular to the horizon.
If any pieces reached the earth, they probably fell
near Dragoon." (See the Monthly Weather Review
for February 1897, pages 56 and 57; also the
Tombstone, Arizona Epitaph for February 26, 1897)

(Editor's Note: For the meteor to have been seen as
far north as Solomon, it had to have made a 40
degree turn northward east of Tucson, over the
Dragoon Mountains.)

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That's it for this week. Best wishes from "the
paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP." See you
next weekend.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post
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